“This is difficult to understand, considering the wealth of titles that New Star Books has produced over the course of just over a half-century.” Trevor Marc Hughes writes about the winding down of operations of accomplished BC publisher New Star Books.
2024 donors to the British Columbia Review, a thank you from Richard Mackie.
“Hunting and fishing for survival is part of life for an increasing number of North Americans. The Port Hardy memoir reminded me that I am not of that ilk and would likely die quickly if marooned on a deserted coastal island in Drouin’s backyard.” Past the End of the Road: A North Island Boyhood by Michel Drouin (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $24.95 / 9781990776670
Decrim: How We Decriminalized Drugs in British Columbia by Kennedy Stewart Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023 $24.95 / 9781990776304 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Former Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart speaks from political experience when he describes the struggle to have hard drugs like heroin and cocaine decriminalized in Canada’s third largest city. He also speaks…
Read more 1972 Make injection sites, not criminals
White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver by Henry Tsang Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023 $32.95 / 9781551529196 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Many British Columbians will have heard of the Vancouver anti-Asian riots of 1907. It was a brutal historic event that revealed deep-seated public prejudices fueled by paranoia about the province being…
Read more The shame of 1907
Unsettled: Lord Selkirk’s Scottish Colonists and the Battle for Canada’s West, 1813-1816 by Robert Lower Toronto: ECW Press, 2023 $29.95 / 9781770417182 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Many of us learned about Lord Selkirk’s Red River Settlement in high school or college, but we’ve never read it so up close and personal as Robert Lower…
Read more 1954 Survival of the fittest Scots
Class Warrior: The Selected Works of E.T. Kingsley by Benjamin Isitt and Ravi Malhotra (eds.) Athabasca: Athabasca University Press, 2022 $34.95 / 9781778290046 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Chances are you’ve never heard of Eugene Thornton (E.T.) Kingsley. Chances are also good that if you had heard of him you might not like him or…
Read more 1927 Impossiblist Maverick
The Postmedia Effect: How Vulture Capitalism is Wrecking Our News by Marc Edge Vancouver: New Star Books, 2023 $25.00 / 9781554201976 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Notice how your local newspaper isn’t quite what it used to be? Maybe there are fewer local news stories reported. Maybe it’s no longer serving as a watchdog at…
Read more 1903 Corporate media bad guys
Voices from Bridge River: The Bridge River Hydroelectric Projects, the People Who Built Them, and the Lives They Touched by BC Hydro Power Pioneers with Kerry Gold Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2022 $29.95 / 9781773271071 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * With her caustic wit and outspoken opinions, local newspaper publisher Ma [Margaret] Murray put BC’s…
Read more 1874 Bridge River Gold
Storylines: How Words Shape Our World by J. Edward Chamberlin Madeira Park, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023 $26.95 / 9781771623513 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * British novelist D.H. Lawrence once quipped that readers should trust the tale and not the teller. What did he mean? Prof emeritus J. Edward Chamberlin offers some possible answers in…
Read more 1853 Trust the tale not the teller?
Bosun: The Mariner’s Journals By Gary H. Karlsen Victoria, BC: First Choice Books, 2023 $24.95 / 9781775266921 Reviewed by Eric W. Sager * Bosun, whose name is Ulf Kleivik, is well into his nineties, living in a small wooden house north of the Arctic circle. He finds a “penman,” a writer, to turn Kleivik’s journals…
Read more 1842 A maritime saga
Room at the Inn: Historic Hotels of British Columbia’s Southern Interior by Glen A. Mofford Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2023 $26.95 / 9781772034233 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Remember staying at that cozy little hotel on your honeymoon, that summer vacation spot by the lake or that mountain resort? Well, now you can vicariously enjoy…
Read more 1831 Bordellos and a dog named Dinty
Printer’s Devils: How a Feisty Pioneer Newspaper Shaped the History of British Columbia, 1895-1925 by Ron Verzuh Qualicum Beach, BC: Caitlin Press, 2023 $28.00 / 9781773861036 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * Small town newspapers can reveal much about the communities they serve. Indeed, Ron Verzuh suggests that Printer’s Devils “plays a double role, first…
Read more 1819 The personalities behind the paper
Knight of the Rails by Christine Welldon Toronto: Red Deer Press, 2022 $14.95 / 9780889956698 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Move Over Dickens: Meet a Canadian Pip and An Unusual Artful Dodger Novels for teenagers rarely cross my desk these days. In my youth I revelled in the adventures of the Hardy Boys until Mom…
Read more 1780 Move over Dickens
Incredible Crossings: The History and Art of the Bridges, Tunnels and Inland Ferries that Connect British Columbia by Derek Hayes Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $46.95 / 9781550179903 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Pacific Highways and Byways: Travelling Through BC History by Boat, Train, Road or Armchair Pick a road, any road. Chances are you’ll…
Read more 1761 Pacific highways and byways
Forgotten Cranbrook: A Photo History of Early Cranbrook & District by Keith G. Powell, Derryll White, and Erin Knutson Cranbrook: Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History, 2022 $29.95 / 9780981214696 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Pioneer impermanence: A photographic history tour of the East Kootenays I am staring into the faces of several older men…
Read more 1744 Pioneer impermanence
The British Columbia Review interview seriesPresented and curated by Trevor Marc Hughes * Please visit our new YouTube interview channel, presented and curated by Trevor Marc Hughes, historian, biographer, freelance broadcaster, former arts reporter at CBC Radio in Vancouver, and member of the board of the Ormsby Literary Society. Trevor will be interviewing a range…
Read more Interview series
Hard Is the Journey: Stories of Chinese Settlement in British Columbia’s Kootenay by Lily Chow Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022 $26.00 / 9781773860749 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Looking Deeper into History: The Trails of Chinese Immigrants Revealed in the Kootenays What a pleasant surprise to see Cameron Mah on the first page of Lily…
Read more 1723 The forgotten Chinese
The Geography of Memory: Reclaiming the Cultural, Natural and Spiritual History of the Snayackstx (Sinixt) First People by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2022 (first published by Kutenai House Press, 2002) $30.00 / 9781771605212 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Extinct No More: The Sinixt People of the Kootenays have much to teach us…
Read more 1709 Extinct no more
Converging Empires: Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867-1945 by Andrea Geiger Vancouver: UBC Press, 2022 $35.95 / 9780774867993 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * When Empires Collide: How the Pacific Northwest was won, lost and sold Andrea Geiger takes readers to an early moment in Pacific Northwest history, one that sheds much light…
Read more 1696 When empires collide